The Butlers did it

Monday

Jan 21, 2013 at 2:27 PMJan 21, 2013 at 2:33 PM

The Pratt Community College basketball teams were swept by Butler County Saturday night at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena. The women were throttled 78-57 while the men lost an overtime heartbreaker 64-58.

Neil DePew

The Pratt Community College basketball teams were swept by Butler County Saturday night at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena. The women were throttled 78-57 while the men lost an overtime heartbreaker 64-58.In the womens’ game, the Lady Grizzlies seemed to have taken up permanent residence in the PCC passing lanes, forcing turnovers and swiping steals at an alarming rate throughout the game. More often than not, Butler turned those opportunities into easy baskets, 25 Grizzly points coming off Beaver cough-ups.“We just had too many turnovers again,” PCC head coach Stephanie Thompson analyzed. “They (Butler) were way athletic and it allowed them to get too many easy lay-ups.” Injuries are also hurting the Lady Beavers cause, the latest victim Hannah Mehl who received a concussion in Garden City last week. Only eight Lady Beavers were able to answer the bell Saturday night against the Grizzlies. As a result, PCCs ball-handlers had to play an inordinate number of minutes. Many of the Beavers looked visibly exhausted by the end of the contest.“They wore us down,” Thompson said. “They just kept coming at us defensively on every possession, and with our ball-handlers not able to ever get off the floor, we just ran out of gas.”Pratt was still in the ballgame at halftime, down just 34-27. But as the second half proceeded, the Grizzlies increasingly took control of the contest. An 11-2 Butler run from 16:30 to 12:30 pretty well decided the issue. At that point, the Beavers were down by 15, and they would never get any closer as fatigue began to set in. When the final horn sounded, Butler had defeated the Lady Beavers 78-57. PCC drops to 12-7 (1-4 Jayhawk West) with the loss. A stiff test faces Pratt as they travel to Hutch on Wednesday to face the #1 ranked Blue Dragons. STATSPCC 27 30 57Butler 34 44 78Devlin 1-0-0-2;Maddie Pendry 5-2-0/2-16; Hayli Jo Smith 6-0-3/4-15; Strobel 2-0-0-4; Watson 0-0-1/2-1; Ashari Broadwater 4-0-6/10-14; Parks 1-0-1/2-3; Stein 0-0-2/2-2

The PCC men let one slip away from them Saturday night against the Butlers.Trailing by a pair with 20 ticks left on the clock, Butler got the game tied, sent the game into extras, and eventually wrested a 64-58 decision from the Beavers in OT.The game had been tight throughout. Neither squad had the hot hand early, in fact the score was still just 2-2 with 6 minutes gone in the contest. Then Sean Michaelson hit a pair of trifectas for PCC to key a 9-2 Beaver run, and Pratt was up 11-4 at the midpoint of the first half.The Grizzlies full-court pressure got them back into the game, knotting the score at 11 with 6:30 left in the opening stanza. From then on, neither team would lead by more than 4 points until the end of the contest.Behind 21-18 at the break, the Beavers went on a run to start the second half. Another Michaelson 3-ball gave PCC the lead 29-28 at the 15:23 mark. Things went back and forth from that point, the tension mounting as the clock inexorably ticked away with no certain outcome apparent. Ralph Abraham scored 6 points and Javis Flynn made 5 free throws in that stretch to help PCC keep pace. With 20 seconds left, Michaelson made an unconventional 3-point play: canning 3 free throws after being fouled on a shot from behind the arc. That gave PCC the lead 52-50. The Beavers could not get a stop, however, and the Grizzlies scored a hoop to send the game into overtime. Randall Rogers scored all 6 of Pratt’s points in OT, but it was not enough as the Grizzlies were able to convert two steals into baskets, giving them a 6-0 run, which resulted in a 61-56 Butler lead, putting them in the driver’s seat. The Grizzlies were able to hold on for the 64-58 overtime win.The defeat drops the PCC record to 12-7 (2-3 Jayhawk West). Next up is a tough test on the road—Wednesday the Beavers travel to take on #1 ranked Hutchinson.STATSPCC 18 34 (6) 58Butler 21 31 (12) 64Aaron Abram 1-0-0-2; Flynn 0-0-5/8-5; Randall Rogers 1-1-3/4-8; Sean Michaelson 1-4-4/4-18; Taylor 0-0-3/4-3; Ralph Abraham 2-2-1/2-11; Roberts 0-0-1/2-1; Bryan Hellman 2-2-0-10